Secrets

Chapter 14

"So, Rose, feeling better now that those bandages are off?" Rita asks, swinging her thin arms back and forth as we walk.

Glancing over, I notice how my current escort's long, blue and blonde braids swing with her moment, and smile.

"I'm just glad that people won't have a reason to stare at me anymore." I laugh, pausing at the edge of the pathway that leads to the school doors.

"Well, I'll make sure that Nessie knows that you got here alright. Okay?!"

"Yeah...you do that." I whisper, turning then to follow the other few students who've gotten here as early as I have.

It's been a week.

One week, since I was forced to move in with Vanessa.

Her apartment is in a building called Altron's Place, all the way across town from Cherry High, and in a neighborhood of people who blatantly go out of their way to make sure that we know that we're not wanted there.

Honestly, it only took three hours for me to start questioning my sister's sanity, and whether or not these people are the ones who made her so cold.

But regardless of the jerkish neighbors, it's not like being penned up with my sister made things any better.

Given, her apartment is pretty big, but there needs to be at least half a city between us after the first hour of our interacting if a fight is to be avoided.

In the end, my life has become a nightmare.

Yes, the perfectly clean white floors and walls are a huge contrast to Ryan's house, and the regular routine of when dinner will be or when I have to go to bed is sorta like what I had to live with when I lived at Noah's.

But Vanessa takes things way too far.

If I'm not down within five minutes of dinner time, I better have a very good excuse, or I'm just not allowed to eat.

If I'm not in bed at exactly 9:00, then I'm grounded.

I thought Noah was a dictator, but Nessa's passed him up by a mile.

She's a freaking tyrant!

My only comforts now come from sitting in my sterile, white bedroom and flipping through books online.

"At least I got my laptop back." I whisper for the thousandth time.

It's not much, but it's better than nothing.

Pulling my books from my locker, I pause as it just hits me that I've already arrived and opened said locker without noticing.

"Even if it was a lie, Ryan was probably right about me spacing out. It's seriously a bad habit."

Pulling out the last book, I glance down to my jacket and shrug.

"I don't care if I get chastised for it today, I just feel better with it on...so they can deal."

And it's true too.

Ever since that night...that awful, nightmare inducing night...I've kept my jacket on me like a life preserver.

I know it can't do anything against a gun or a knife or a fist, but just to feel the material wrapped around me...it's comforting.

Shutting my locker, I turn down the hall and walk with my eyes downcast.

It's been so awkward to walk around these halls, all banged up and covered in bandages that I had to laugh off with pretty lies.

Lies that have forced a coldness to form a ball in my stomach, where it just sorta hovers...waiting for the right time to make me snap and let my siblings have it.